Ghana’s growth rate indicative of fast recovery of the economy – Amin Adam

The Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam has indicated that Ghana’s economic growth rate is indicative of a fast recovery.

Ghana’s provisional overall real Gross Domestic Product(GDP) grew by 3.2% in 2023 in the second quarter. The provisional non-oil real GDP also increased by 3.2% in the quarter.

The services sector remained the main driver of growth in the second quarter, recording a growth rate of 6.3%, and the agriculture sector with a growth rate of 6%.

Mr. Amin Adam cited the 3.3% and 3.2% growth rates in the first and second quarters of 2023 to buttress his point.

“As far as recovery is concerned, I think that the figures show clearly that we are recovering, and we are recovering so fast. We offloaded the IMF fiscal adjustment into the 2023 budget which was presented in November 2022. So from that point even though we hadn’t gotten the approval of the IMF program which happened in May this year the government had decided through a program that we put in place the Post COVID Programme for Economic Growth (PCPEG) that outlined several policy measures that the government wanted to implement.”

“And this is why in the first quarter, growth for example grew by 3.3%. In the second quarter, it grew by 3.2%. And so half into the year growth rebound has been strong averaging 3.2% against 3% same time last year,” he explained.

However, Business Consultant and Director of Operations at Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson, says claims by the government that the economy is recovering after close to a year under an IMF support programme cannot be true.

According to Mr Jackson, the country’s economy is still under intensive care and receiving treatment.

Following this, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta said the development was a sign that the economy was seeing a rebound and recovering.

But the Business Consultant thinks otherwise. In his view, such an assertion cannot be right.

Speaking in an interview, Mr Jackson insisted that more needs to be done to ensure the full recovery of the economy.

“The best analogy I can give was that somebody had a road crash, entered into a coma, was rushed to the hospital and was given some blood transfusion and now his condition is described as stable. But the person is still very sick, let’s be clear.”
“Last year, we suffered a bad crash and in December last year, we raised our hands and said we cannot pay [our debts] and everything was going south with us going downhill at a horrendous rate. In March we signed a bailout agreement with the IMF which gave us some blood transfusions and gave us some life, but we are still in intensive care, let nobody be deceived”, he said on Accra-based GHOne TV.